


5 Times Andrew Misses Neil...

by Leahelisabeth (fortheloveofcamelot)



Category: All For The Game - Nora Sakavic
Genre: Andrew misses Neil, Cats, Long-Distance Relationship, M/M, Warm and Fuzzy Feelings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-31
Updated: 2018-12-31
Packaged: 2019-09-30 23:17:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,233
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17233010
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fortheloveofcamelot/pseuds/Leahelisabeth
Summary: ...And 1 Time He Doesn't Have To.Andrew has graduated and has moved to a new city with a new apartment and a new pro Exy team.  Long distance isn't easy.





	5 Times Andrew Misses Neil...

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the AFTG Exchange for @sunrise-and-death based on the prompt "long distance."

**1**

It had felt homey at first. That’s why Andrew had picked this apartment in the first place. When he turned the lights on, they illuminated every corner. He didn’t have to shout to be heard in the kitchen if he was in the bedroom or the bathroom. He could stand in the entryway and see his entire apartment. It felt warm. It felt safe. It felt intimate.

And then Neil went back to Palmetto.

And his apartment felt huge and echoing. The light was cold when not reflecting off a head of red hair. The bed was gigantic. He could sprawl out in the middle of it and be unable to reach the sides. He left the tv on at all times and oh how he hated himself for tuning into the sports channel so he could lie in bed and pretend that a certain junkie was too absorbed in the game to come and sleep beside him.. 

When he first walked into this apartment, he thought he could be at home here. But how could he do that when his real home was tucked up in a ratty dorm room a thousand miles away?

He pulled out his phone and dialed a familiar number.

“Andrew, what?” a familiar voice murmured sleepily. “Are you okay?”

“Don’t hang up,” Andrew asked, hating the note of desperation in his voice.

“I’m not going to hang up on you,” Neil said. “Do you need to talk? Or do you want me to?”

“Go back to sleep, Neil,” Andrew said. “Just don’t hang up.”

“Yeah,” Neil said. There was a rustling of blankets as Neil got settled and a few minutes later, Andrew heard the familiar rhythm of Neil’s breath as he drifted off again. Andrew listened for a little while before he joined Neil in sleep.

* * *

**2**

“Minyard, you’re sharing with Kowalski,” Coach Jenkins said, tossing Andrew a key card.

“Seriously?” Kowalski interrupted. “I was gonna share with Smith.”

“I make the room assignments, not you,” Coach rolled her eyes. “Smith, you’re with Lake.”

Andrew rode the elevator up to the third floor in silence. Kowalski didn’t even look at him. He hadn’t been particularly vocal about his dislike of Andrew but he also hadn’t made any effort to be subtle.

Andrew claimed the bed beside the balcony and immediately stepped out the french doors. He leaned over the balcony railing and looked down, trying to recapture a feeling he could barely admit he was missing. But it had stopped being about heights a long time ago and there was nothing here that could make his heart race the way he craved.

After the game, Andrew took the bus back to the hotel and took a shower. He crawled into bed, feeling an exhausted sort of heaviness in his bones. Kowalski was out. They had won their game and most of his teammates were out at the bar, celebrating. Andrew didn’t feel like celebrating.

Kowalski stumbled in at 2 am, waking Andrew up. He turned on the lamp and stumbled loudly through his bedtime routine, finally collapsing on top of the covers and starting to snore like a freight train.

This was the first time Andrew had shared a room since Neil had gone back to school. He had been hoping it would be easier to sleep with someone there but everything was wrong. Kowalski was loud in all the worst ways. He didn’t hum in his sleep or recite Exy stats, he snorted and made sex noises.

Andrew hunted around in his bag for his headphones and searched on his phone until he found a compilation on YouTube entitled “Neil Josten’s sickest burns.” He finally fell asleep to the sound of the obsessed junkie tearing strips off reporters.

* * *

**3**

Andrew wasn’t sure what made this game different. The sport hadn’t changed. The team was still full of people he barely tolerated. This barely made the top five of toughest Exy games he had ever played. But somehow when he walked on the court, the decision felt almost made for him. Tonight he was going to shut the goal down.

The first half felt normal. He could defend this goal with one hand tied behind his back. But his own team kept scoring and the imbalance was creeping higher and he could see the strikers on the opposing team get more and more desperate. About a third of the way through the second half, he dove to block an impossible shot, barely getting his racket beneath it, and he passed it almost the full length of the court and dropping it perfectly into Kowalski’s racket. Kowalski blinked for a second before recovering, turning, and shooting it into the net before the other goalie had even realised the ball was on his side.

An electricity started building then, born of excitement and teamwork. The last time Andrew had felt this way had been THE final against the Ravens. It kept going as his team scored goal after goal and the opposing team tried shot after shot, only to be denied. The final score was 22-0 and Andrew collapsed back into the goal when the final buzzer sounded and a laugh he didn’t recognize tore its way out of his throat. He looked around, half expecting to ice blue eyes and a crooked grin filling a scarred face with pure joy. But Neil wasn’t there to celebrate with him and the smile dropped off his face.

His team swarmed him then, slapping his back but not hugging him, and the smile came back a little because he let himself dream that someday he could have this with Neil by his side. He picked up his phone in the locker room and found a string of texts Neil had sent him while watching the game and the smile came back for real.

* * *

**4**

Sometimes when Andrew couldn’t sleep, he would go for a walk in the city. He refused to run on principle, even though sometimes he thought it might help get him out of his head. But he could definitely go walking.

One night when his apartment felt just too big and quiet, he pulled on his shoes and crept out the door at just past 3:00 am. The streets were mostly quiet. The occasional car passed him but for the most part, people were in their beds where they belonged. There was no wind and that’s why he heard it, a clatter in the dark of the alleyway and a quiet mew.

It was dumb really, showed a complete lack of self-preservation, by which he meant it was something Neil would do, but he turned on the flashlight on his phone and turned down the alley to investigate.

He couldn’t tell what colour the cat was. It was skinny and limping and it smelled absolutely putrid and he didn’t want to touch it much less let it into his home and Neil would have loved the fucking thing. It rubbed around his ankles, not scared of him the way most street cats would be. He could see the grime leaving smears on his favourite pajama pants.

“Well, come on then,” he said, heading back out to the street. He resisted the urge to look behind him and he absolutely did not slow down to make sure the cat could follow. It caught up and twined around his ankles again when he stopped to unlock his door.

He went straight to the bathroom and ran hot water in the bathtub. It followed him there too. “Okay, here’s the thing, Cat,” Andrew said. “You are disgusting and smelly and you will not be allowed on any furniture unless you bathe. Got it?”

The cat cocked its head and looked at Andrew but didn’t move or make a sound.

“Right,” Andrew said. He stood and walked over to the bedroom to replace his current armbands with a pair that Neil hadn’t given him so it wouldn’t matter if they were clawed apart. When he walked back into the bathroom, the cat had hopped into the tub and was contentedly paddling around in it. Andrew was startled into a laugh. He pulled out his phone again and took a short video, texting it to Neil with the caption, “I think this fucking thing’s broken.”

He sat down by the tub and put some shampoo in his hand, rubbing it into the cat’s fur. “You’re orange,” he said, surprised.

Later, with the cat clean and dry, he finally crawled back into bed. The cat followed him and hopped up beside him.

“You’re not allowed to sleep here,” Andrew said.

The cat ignored him and curled up on his chest, right where Neil would often rest his head. Somehow, his apartment didn’t feel quite so big.

* * *

**5**

The ringing of the phone woke him up out of a sound sleep. The cat protested at being moved but Andrew managed to grab his phone without dislodging him.

“You got a cat? At three in the morning?” It was Neil.

“And that’s why you’re calling me at six in the morning?” Andrew groaned.

“Andrew, you got a CAT!” Neil repeated, as if that explained everything.

The cat opened slitted eyes and glared at him. He reached up and batted the phone out of Andrew’s hands onto the bed and then pounced on top of it. Andrew felt yet another bubble of laughter burst forth from his mouth, even as his heart squeezed in his chest. Because the only thing that would make this moment better would be Neil laughing beside him instead of on the other end of the phone line.

He dug his phone out from under the cat and grabbed the lanyard with his team ID to dangle in front of the thing. He leapt and Andrew pulled it away before he could catch it. He put his phone back to his ear. “It’s the worst fucking thing,” he said. “Just another stray that followed me home and now I can’t make it leave.

* * *

**+1**

Andrew usually hates countdowns. They rarely lead to anything good. But this year he finds himself keeping track of the days on the calendar, just waiting for university exam week to be over. There are still three days before the last day and he can feel the anticipation burrowing under his skin. He’s been so antsy that he’d even decorated for Christmas. Granted, it was a tiny tree from the dollar store that The Cat (Andrew refused to call it by the ridiculous name Nicky had come up with) likes to knock over and roll around the room.

The doorbell rings and Andrew ignores it. A total of three people know his address and none of them are currently within a thousand miles of him. He refuses to subject himself to any sort of sales pitch.

The doorbell rings again and Andrew slips a knife into his armband, just in case. He opens the door and can’t quite believe he isn’t dreaming.

“Neil?”

The other man looks tired and is a little thinner than Andrew remembers. A ratty duffel bag sits at his feet and in his arms is the ugliest cat Andrew has ever seen, and that includes the disgusting monster he picked up the other night.

“Can I come in?” Neil asks after Andrew has stood there for far too long just taking him in.

“No,” Andrew says, even as he feels his feet moving back to make room for Neil to enter. “Why do you have a cat?”

“Meet King Fluffkins,” Neil hoists the cat a little as it starts fighting to get down. “I rescued him from some kids who were tormenting him but I got caught trying to sneak him into the dorm and the RA told me I had to find a home for him or they would take him to the shelter. And then you sent me the video of your cat and thought maybe you’d like a companion for Sir Fat Cat McCatterson.”

“I refuse to call him that,” Andrew says.

“Just Sir then,” Neil replies as King finally escapes Neil’s arms and disappears into the apartment.

Andrew rolls his eyes but doesn’t go after him because Neil is right here, right in his entryway, and he doesn’t have to miss him anymore. “What are you doing here?”

“I got lucky. All my exams were over yesterday and I hopped on a plane as soon as I could.” Neil grinned a little, uncertainty creeping into his voice. “Is that okay?”

“Yes or no,” Andrew asks and watches Neil melt into relief.

“Always yes with you, remember?” Neil whispers, stepping closer so his breath tickles Andrew’s ear.

Andrew silently takes his hand and leads him to the bedroom.

When they resurface for sustenance two hours later, Sir and King have torn apart the dollar store tree completely and lie curled up together among its remains. Neil looks more settled and his eyes look clearer and the purple bruise over his pulse point makes Andrew’s knees weak with want. He puts the kettle on for hot chocolate and tea and calls out for takeout for two (and two cats). Neil flops onto the floor and the cats immediately attack his wild mop of red hair. Neil laughs and laughs and this is the most right Andrew has felt in months.


End file.
